13 to Life

Series: 13 to Life (#1)
Genre: Romance
Author: Shannon Delany
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

There's an old lawyer's saying: "If the facts are against you, pound upon the law. If the law is against you, pound upon the facts. If both are against you, pound upon the table." 13 to Life doesn't have the best plot- it's your standard issue high-school Love Dodecahedron, with the twist that the male lead is a werewolf. The execution is equally average, and Delany seems to know it. So she does the literary equivalent of pounding on the table- she pours on the style and the wit, convinced that just because it can't be the best story doesn't mean it can't be good reading. And you know what? It works. Well, it mostly works.

Full Moon

Series: Dark Guardian (#2)
Genre: Romance/Adventure
Author: Rachel Hawthorne
Publisher: HarperTeen

When I reviewed Moonlight, I rejected it for making some game-breaking mistakes with its second half. But up until things went south, I was enjoying the book very much for its brisk pace and realistic characters. And having read some legitimately bad books since then, I look back on Moonlight a bit more charitably today. So when I finally got around to the sequel, I had hopes that Hawthorne would do better with the material. And as it turns out, she has. Maybe not as good as I hoped, but a definite improvement.

Never Cry Werewolf

Series: Stand-Alone
Genre: Romance
Author: Heather Davis
Publisher: HarperTeen

The dustjacket blurb for Never Cry Werewolf claims that the author "didn't set out to write a book about werewolves", and I believe it. The male lead is a werewolf, but this is so irrelevant to the plot that I feel cheated. It's literally just an obstacle that some vials of Liquid MacGuffin are needed to deal with. You could replace it with any random real or imagined chronic disease, tweak the plot a bit, and have the same story. I'm not even sure this book belongs on my blog. But it does have a werewolf, it's advertised as a werewolf story, and I've read it already, so here we go...

Kitty Takes a Holiday

Series: Kitty Norville (#3)
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Publisher: Hachette

Kitty Takes a Holiday is a very difficult book to review. I can't honestly say that I disliked it, and I think it advances the overall plot of the series in a positive direction. But having finished it a mere day ago, I don't have a single scene that I can call to mind as being memorable. It's a serviceable book, but totally forgettable. One can't shake the feeling of an author phoning it in.

Linger

Series: Wolves of Mercy Falls (#2)
Genre: Romance
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic Press

Linger does exactly what a good sequel is supposed to. It picks up where Shiver left off, refining that book's strengths and minimizing it's flaws. It doesn't cheat readers of the original, nor does it regurgitate the same plot. Instead it takes the story in a new direction, which progresses from the previous book in a very organic way. Most of all, it provides an engaging tale with an interesting cast.

Claire de Lune

Series: Claire de Lune (#1)
Genre: Drama
Author: Christine Johnson
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Reviewing debut novels can be very difficult. On the one hand, there is an impulse to encourage promising talent and praise fresh perspectives. On the other hand, in all areas of life, newbies make mistakes. A lot of first books struggle with the author's inexperience and stylistic flaws, and the reviewer has a responsibility to be honest both to his reader and the author. So I must regretfully report that Claire de Lune is not a good read. In fact- although it pains me to say this- this is a book that does nearly nothing right.

Raised by Wolves

Series: Raised by Wolves (#1)
Genre: Adventure
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Egmont

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is new to werewolf fiction, but not to writing as a whole. Her website lists six previous YA books to her credit. Her experience shows in Raised by Wolves, because the book is clearly the work of a master storyteller.